March 16: Bob Dylan making Most Of The Time promo video – 1990

Most of the time
I’m clear focused all around
Most of the time
I can keep both feet on the ground
I can follow the path, I can read the signs
Stay right with it when the road unwinds
I can handle whatever I stumble upon
I don’t even notice she’s gone
Most of the time

.. Sony wanted him to record a promo video of the song to help their ongoing attempts to promote an album that had been (correctly) received as a real return to form. And Dylan, being Dylan, duly obliged by re-recording the song with the musicians destined to feature on his next album, under the red sky, and letting his son Jesse film the results. The resultant thudding threnody was as unambient as it gets. Yet Dylan dug it enough to allow promo CDs of this new version to be released, even though after a month off the road his voice was not in great shape, and the song suffers accordingly
~Clinton Heylin (Still on the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol. 2, . 1974-2008)

Culver City Studios
Los Angeles, California
16 March 1990Shooting of Most Of The Time promo video. Produced by Don Was.

Bob Dylan (guitar, vocal)

David Lindley (guitar)

Randy Jackson (bass)

Kenny Aronoff (drums)

Most of the time
It’s well understood
Most of the time
I wouldn’t change it if I could
I can make it all match up, I can hold my own
I can deal with the situation right down to the bone
I can survive, I can endure
And I don’t even think about her
Most of the time

Most of the time
My head is on straight
Most of the time
I’m strong enough not to hate
I don’t build up illusion ’til it makes me sick
I ain’t afraid of confusion no matter how thick
I can smile in the face of mankind
Don’t even remember what her lips felt like on mine
Most of the time

Most of the time
She ain’t even in my mind
I wouldn’t know her if I saw her
She’s that far behind
Most of the time
I can’t even be sure
If she was ever with me
Or if I was with her

Most of the time
I’m halfway content
Most of the time
I know exactly where it went
I don’t cheat on myself, I don’t run and hide
Hide from the feelings that are buried inside
I don’t compromise and I don’t pretend
I don’t even care if I ever see her again
Most of the time

5 thoughts on “March 16: Bob Dylan making Most Of The Time promo video – 1990”

“The song suffers accordingly.” Heylin is a good chronicler, but sometimes I wonder if he understands Dylan’s art very well. This is an incredible *performance* — raw, emotional, barely hanging on to its form, its inner structure: which is what people feel in the midst of heartbreak. The performance of a song, in the moment, in that exact moment, is, I think, what is most important in Dylan’s work; that’s where the song *lives,* that’s where time is stopped, for a moment, so life can be seen and felt in depth, before it moves relentlessly and remorselessly on. (It’s like the title of Pasternak’s poem: “Thunderstorm, Instantaneous Forever.”) You can like one captured moment more than another, of course, and everyone does. I think all three snapshots we have of this song are good: this one, the album and the “folk” version on Tell Tale Signs. I find myself coming back to this one more often, but that’s just a personal taste. But again, I think Heylin, with his breezy dismissal, perhaps misreads what Dylan is doing here — and elsewhere.

This has always been one of my favorite Dylan songs: truly heart-wrenching as no one can do better. This version is pretty darn good, too, despite what others say. There’s real emotion in his delivery.

I also like the version on the “Tell Tale Sign” Bootleg Series 8, only acoustic guitar and harmonica like in the old times, the pure song itself is brilliant, like this version is brilliant too. It is the song and a number of different performances which invent the song completely new. That’s what makes Dylan so singular in his own: he interprets himself much better than anyone else, he finds melodies and rhythms which where not there before but they fit right in. Every other artist who interprets Dylan is always one step behind him. That’s so fascinating and that’s why I love him so much.